


Strange Connections

by Mutant_Toad



Category: Doctor Strange (2016)
Genre: Cloak of Levitation (Marvel), Emotional Healing, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fae Magic, Old Acquaintances, Sex for fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-20 07:44:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14890427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mutant_Toad/pseuds/Mutant_Toad
Summary: Becoming reacquainted with someone can be more trouble than it's worth.





	1. Chapter 1

“Stephen? Stephen Strange?”

Eyes flicking up, he turned at the sound of his name and was met with a familiar sight. It was a woman he had been intimate with in the past. It wasn’t uncommon to run into these women. In the past, he would brush them off and continue walking; but he endeavoured not to be that man anymore. He had learned that while the past needed to be moved on from, it couldn’t be ignored. He had to confront his past to be able to heal from it and continue on his new path in life. 

Yet this was one he wasn’t prepared for. This wasn’t just some ex-lover or one night stand that he had never thought to call in the morning. This wasn’t a woman who would slap him for his transgressions as a few of the others had.

This was Madeline ‘Maddy’ Mahony.

Standing there in all her glory in the middle of a New York sidewalk looking like she belonged in some kind of underground modeling magazine. Not the high fashion magazines. No. Maddy had never fit that. Not with her mane of frizzy, red hair that she tamed into mild submission daily, clear frost blue eyes, and pale skin dotted heavily with freckles. Maddy had always looked the stereotype of the cover of some kind of Witches Daily magazine, if there was such a thing. 

Dressed like a red-headed Stevie Nicks. Her star printed dress had open shoulders and was layered in ruffled tiers down her body. Complete with purple, blue, and black yarn shawl with long fringes hanging all down the sides of it. The shawl hanging just off her shoulders as well. All the way down to her open toe, black ankle boots. She looked just like he remembered, except of the obvious signs of aging. The years had been good to her.

The hair was longer and he could see the color had dulled with age. Her eyes weren’t as wide, her eyelids being more defined now. Her waist was a little thicker. Just usual signs of aging. None of it took away from her beauty though.

As strange, and perverted, a thing to notice; he also noticed she seemed to be wearing a bra. When he last saw her, she had never worn one in her life. Her breasts were heavier now though and she seemed to need the support the undergarment could provide these days. It was a hard thing not to notice when it had been such a topic of conversation in the locker room during school. Maddy Mahony, the girl who refused to wear a bra that so many guys like watching run laps during gym class. Teenage conversations that he was embarrassed to say he had taken part in.

Madeline ‘Maddy’ Mahony. The girl he had lost his virginity to the summer after he turned sixteen and had never talked to again after that night. His first ‘conquest’. The girl who had given him a false sense of what women would act like when treated that way. He’d never talked to her again, but she had never attempted to speak with him again either. The rest of their high school career was spent with random passes in the hallway where they would briefly make eye contact and be on their way. A far cry from the women who had expected his calls, stalked him, and cried over him. A far cry from even the one woman he had felt anything close to love for. Maddy had been an experience.

“Madeline Mahony…” her name passed his lips for the first time in decades.

“Oh god, it really is you,” she smiled brightly and moved quick to wrap her arms around his neck in an affectionate hug. This sort of thing was always difficult for him. Why people he knew in his younger years felt it was okay to hug him was beyond him. It had happened during several chance meeting like this over the years. With Maddy though, it felt less awkward. Likely because it was who she’d always been. While they had broken off contact rather quick after their tryst, she had always been an affectionate person since they were children towards most of the people around her.

They had kept enough distance between themselves in their last few years of school that he was surprised to feel that she was nearly the same height as him in heels. A last minute growth spurt of youth had put her there. In her boots, she was eye to eye with him. In school, those shoes would have only put her to his nose. It wasn’t often he found himself eye to eye with a woman.

“It’s certainly surprising,” out of all the people in the world he could run into, it had to be her. For the life of him, he couldn’t recall what had happened to her after school. It hadn’t been of concern to him at the time. He doubted they would have encountered each other in any other fashion than a chance meeting on the streets. Given her personality and the sort of people she once surrounded herself with, their crowds simply didn’t mix.

“What’s it been? Twenty…”

“Twenty-three years,” he suddenly realized just how old he was getting. The age didn’t really bother him, but it was just incredible to realize how long it had been since he left his teenage years behind.

She smiled again, “Twenty-five if you count how long it’s been since we actually spoke.”

“True,” he nodded.

“Move it, Lady!” someone snapped as they pushed past her. 

Stephen was tempted to say something back, but she took care of herself, “Tellin’ me to move! You bridge and tunnel! Go back where you belong!” he fought back a smirk. He supposed even if she had moved away, once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker.

The man whipped around with an angry look on his face. It wasn’t her insult that got to him, but rather that she had dared to snap back. Stephen put his hand up and shook his head a little before nudging Maddy towards the buildings to get them out of the middle of the sidewalk. The other man flipped them off before heading back on his way, “I would have fought him.”

He couldn’t help the smirk this time, “I know you would have,” his eyes glanced her over again, “You’re looking well.”

“Thanks. I’m doing well. Just moved back two months ago. You look…” he knew she was trying to assess what he was wearing. It was far from how he had dressed in school and if she knew anything of him since school, it likely didn’t fit what she thought she knew of him, “Well too.”

He ran his hands down the front of his tunic and to the belt loop that held his sling ring. Stephen was glad to be in New York. One could dress as strangely as they wanted and no one would bat an eye at it. He could blend in as just one of the things that made New York what it was. At least he could so long as he didn’t wear the cloak. The cloak seemed a step too far for most people and that’s when he would start to get looks, “It’s for work…” he muttered a little.

“Really? I thought you were a doctor?” so she did know a little of him since they had left school. He felt a little embarrassed that he knew nothing about her. It had been a hard road coming to terms with the sort of person he had been in the past and who he was now.

“I am a doctor,” of sorts. It was different these days. Stephen had still worked hard for his degrees and it was difficult letting them go. Maybe it was best to lead the conversation away from that, “You just moved back?”

“Oh, yeah, opened a shop. Doing the whole small business owner thing.”

He could appreciate that. At least he could now. He’d always taken for granted the sort of things he used to enjoy that came from places like that. He had held himself to a higher standard than other people and felt entitled to the hard work others put into their products. He’d never appreciated them, “What kind of shop?”

Her freckled cheeks turned a little pink and she turned her eyes down for a moment. She was always such a confident girl growing up, it was odd to see her being bashful. Was she embarrassed about her shop or was she still seeing him as the person he used to be and worried he might put her down for her business? It seemed more reasonable that she was worried about his harsh words against what he might think of her business endeavours, “Well, it’s less of opening a shop and more of reopening my mom’s old shop. She closed it about ten years ago…”

He quickly racked his brain to see if he had ever known what sort of shop her mother had run. Her father had been the reasonable one in the family, from what he could remember. A legal counselor to not only several banks, but several well known individual clients. Stephen remembered that, because it had seemed important. A wealthy father that indulged not only his daughter’s more carefree, hippy-esque personality; but his wife’s similar attitude. But what was it she had done? 

What was it some of the other kids had called her mother? Witchy Wanda! That was it. And she had owned, “...the occult shop,” he muttered as she said it at the same time. Now he knew for sure that it was embarrassment over what he might say. It was the one thing they had dropped the subject about on their one date. They had agreed to disagree about the validity of some of the things her mother sold and believed in at the beginning of the date. If they hadn’t dropped it early, the date never would have progressed to where it had, he was sure. In which case, his first time with a woman would have been with Cheryl Collins six months later and that evening had been extremely unsatisfying.

New Stephen, however, knew that there was some truth in those types of shops and people. For the most part, they were all still filled with fake stuff. Pagans dancing naked in the moonlight and things like that. Still, he had been in a few that the owners actually knew what they were talking about and a few where the owner had come upon something they had no idea was real. He made sure to snap up the few things he had found that were real.

It seemed rude to just jump to asking her questions about the items she had in her new shop. Perhaps her mother or she had managed upon some of these artifacts by chance. But he knew he should ease her into that conversation. This wasn’t just some random shop owner he was hoping to get something from. He had been introduced to her when she started attending the same school as him in second grade. This was a girl he had been, albeit briefly, intimate with. They didn’t have some long history of friendship, but up until their high school graduation, they had shared a large portion of time in the same location together, “How are your mother and father doing?” she had mentioned her mother closing the shop, so that seemed a safe route.

“Divorced,” she shrugged a little.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” not that he had known either of them beyond name and career choices.

“It was bound to happen eventually. The allure of a hippie witch, flower child like mom to a rich boy hoping to aggravate his own conservative mother and father can only last so long. I’m just thankful it was fairly mutual and they were civil about it and still remain civil about it.”

That was surprisingly refreshing to hear. Divorce was more than common these days and all one really heard about it was how messy it was. He supposed it was easy when both parties realized that it wasn’t working and both agreed to that matter. Not that he had thought on it much at the time, he did suppose the pairing had been a strange one and doomed from the beginning. Maddy was likely a product of the honeymoon and had been what kept the marriage from failing sooner, “I suppose that’s a good thing.”

“Oh it is. Dad moved on. He’s engaged and retired from the practice. Mom is living in Topanga Canyon these days. Some kind of commune thing. Free love and all that stuff,” he smiled a little. That seemed about right for what he remembered of her similarly frizzy red haired mother. Nor was he too surprised that her father had retired and was settling back down to a new marriage. Maddy didn’t seem any worse for wear about the failing of her parent’s marriage. Though for all he knew, it had happened the day after graduation. Stephen had essentially dropped everyone he’d known in his youth and moved on to better things immediately, “What about your parents?”

Not something he liked to talk about. It always felt so personal to discuss his home life, “As well as can be,” that was what he always said about them, “Both retired and keeping to themselves,” he knew he should contact them soon. He’d broken off contact with them as easily as he had his youthful friends after the accident.

“That’s good,” she nodded lightly. This conversation was going nowhere, he realized. Was this why they had decided never to speak to each other again? It certainly wasn’t because their night together had been unpleasant. In fact, it had been rather incredible. At least the sex had been. Much better than he had anticipated his first time being. However everything before the sex had been decidedly awkward. Like it was starting to get now. Stephen realized that was why he’d kissed her. The conversation had been going nowhere between them and he was starting to wonder what had deluded him into asking her out.

The conversation had been going poorly and he leaned in to kiss her rather than admitting defeat in managing to have a normal first date with a girl. She had responded favorably and he wondered if it was because she realized how hopeless the date had been as well. It had progressed quickly from kissing to sex in a motel near the restaurant. For a long time, he had actually prided himself on the night had gone for a long time after that. That he had managed to seduce a girl into bed on his first try. It was only now that he was confronted with seeing her again that he realized he had really failed miserably at attempting to have a real date with a girl that didn’t end in sex. His new life had opened his eyes to seeing that he had been a only focused on his needs. That his failure to communicate with Maddy on that first date had been the first in a long string of women he didn’t bother to converse with and only did what was need to get them into bed.

“Well, it was nice seeing you,” she was going to leave. He hadn’t found a way to easily bring up wanting to see her shop and he was once again failing to communicate.

“It was good to see you too…” more words hung on his lips, but he couldn’t get them to form.

He watched as she turned away from him and started to walk. He couldn’t leave it like this. Even if he never got to ask her about her shop, he knew he couldn’t leave it like this. Stephen felt like he owed it to her to give her the date he should have given her years ago. It wasn’t as if he was entirely to blame for it. After all, she had been the one to suggest moving their make out session to the motel. Still, he could have been a little more considerate. If his memory was right, and it usually was, she had made an effort that night to be more social with him and he had shut her down when he felt the topic was below him.

“Madeline...wait…” he moved quick to catch up with her and grabbed one of her wrists gently. Despite everything, his grip would be gentle no matter what. He hadn’t the strength to grip tight. It would have been simple to focus his magic into his hands and get them to work properly, but he had learned that there were more important things in life now. Stephen was grateful just to have his hands at all. He was sure she would be able to feel the shaking in his damaged hands as he held her lightly, “Perhaps we can have dinner some time? I would be interested in hearing more about what you’ve been doing since school and the shop.”

The surprised look on her face wasn’t shocking to him. Anyone who had known him in school would know he would rather take out his own eyes out than talk to someone about the occult, paganism, or anything of that sort. He saw psychiatry as a soft science and ‘magic’ as utterly ridiculous. Both would have him rolling eyes the minute they were brought up and sometimes he would even just get up in the middle of them talking and walk away without a word. He had been above warranting them even with an excuse to leave. 

“Really? Uh...okay. Sure,” her smile was reassuring. When was the last time he had asked a woman out? Not that he considered this a real date. Just two old acquaintances having dinner. Still, it had been quite some time. Christine. That’s who it had been. The few women since then had never really been date companions, so much as women he had picked up at various functions and spent the night with. Not even that since the accident. Even since his epiphany, he had not designated any time to that sort of thing. He told himself that he would try to make amends to Christine, but he had yet to attempt that. Right now, he could think of no woman better to start seeking forgiveness from than the first girl he had treated poorly in a social aspect, “I think that would be fun.”

His fingers slipped away from her wrist and he smiled a little, “Wonderful.”

She dug around in her purse for a moment before pulling out a card, “Here’s the address for the shop. I’m kind of living above it right now, so the store number is my number for a little while,” her mother must not have left it in good shape. Not to mention ten years of likely complete abandonment. Perhaps that was when the marriage had fallen apart, “Call or just stop by and we’ll get together.”

A rather laid back approach. She wasn’t eager to go out with him. She saw no reason to set something up immediately. Leaving it up to him. Despite his outfit and the state of his hands, she knew he had been a doctor and was likely assuming his schedule to be more important than her own. Stephen could have thrown the ball back in her court and told her the truth that he wasn’t the same kind of doctor anymore and he was more than capable of working around her schedule. But that seemed rude. It might feel like he was brushing her off already when he was the one to ask for the dinner.

“Why don’t I come by the shop around five tomorrow and you can show me around? We could go to dinner afterward,” it wouldn’t be a late dinner, which would take away a bit of the ‘date’ feeling and it would give him a chance to poke around the shop a little. Stephen had always been obsessive in nature. Once he was determined to learn something, he couldn’t stop himself. Medicine, particularly that of the brain, had held his interest for a long time, but the mystic arts proved to be an even larger task to take on. One that would never be satisfied. He couldn’t ignore the urge to root around her shop just to satisfy his curiosity on what might be there, “If that works for you.”

She thought for a moment before nodding, “I have some inventory coming in, but I should be done sorting it by five. I’m set to open by next weekend and I’m a little ahead of schedule, so that’ll work out fine,” she said with a smile, “I’ll see you then.”

“Wonderful. I will see you tomorrow then,” even with the plans set, he tucked the card into his wide belt.

There was something strange about watching her walk away. It was odd to run into the owner of a new/reopening occult shop the same day he had learned that there was a small ring of smugglers bringing in and selling artifacts. He had doubts Maddy was involved, but it was not something he could rule out. After all, he knew so little of her when they were in school together and he knew even less now.


	2. Chapter 2

“Stop it,” he swatted his hand at the cloak as it tried to wrap around his shoulders, “You can’t come with.”

His relationship with the Cloak of Levitation had been a difficult one at first. It seemed to think it knew what was best for him in some situations and would stubbornly lead him in that direction. Stephen certainly couldn’t deny that it had been more than useful. It had saved his life many times. With it, he was nearly impossible for him to be blindsided. 

He had researched it as best he could, but there was limited information regarding it. The Ancient One had said that it was a fickle relic and he saw that daily in the sentient fabric. It reminded him of the Flying Carpet in the Aladdin movie. It was strangely affectionate towards him and seemed to be overtaken with anxiety whenever he wouldn’t allow it to come with him. 

Today was one of those days. Not only had he left it behind when he went out yesterday, but he was going to Maddy’s shop and to dinner without it again. The melancholy cloak tried to wrap around his shoulders and when he swatted it away, it sunk low to the ground, “Don’t be like that. I’m meeting with an old acquaintance and she wouldn’t understand me showing up for dinner in a cloak,” though to be fair, he was sure if Maddy was still the way she was in school, she actually wouldn’t care. She was opening an occult shop after all. 

Still, it felt somewhat nice to pull on a pair of black jeans, put on a rolled neck grey sweater, and notched lapel double-breasted mid-thigh length coat. It was something he hadn’t worn in some time. Lately, he just preferred the clothing he had obtained at Kamar-Taj and the cloak.

The cloak whipped around behind him a bit as he looked at himself in the mirror. He’d showered, trimmed his facial hair, and had styled his hair no differently than he did any other day. Even without words, he and the cloak seemed to be able to communicate. He knew what it was thinking, “Yes, it’s a woman and no, I’m not dressing up for her. She’s not part of all of this and it’s easier to talk with her when I’m dressed like an everyday person. That’s all it is.”

The cloak fluttered again and he rolled his eyes, “I’m not going to sleep with her,” he gave himself one last look in the mirror and stumbled forward a little as the fabric shoved him from behind, “My sex life is nothing for you to question me about. I’m content with the way things are for now.”

Content, but not satisfied. In Kamar-Taj, as his training progressed, he finally started feeling urges again. There had been few times in his life when he had felt the need to try to satisfy himself, but in his little room at Kamar-Taj, he had tried. It had been a useless effort as his hands proved incapable of completing the task properly. It had been a frustrating endeavor. One he only completed out of sheer stubbornness to give up. There had been no satisfaction in it and it had only made him focus harder on his magic. Mostly because he wouldn’t allow himself to feel like a failure again. Rather focus on something he was succeeding at and let the rest fade away.

“I’m not discussing my sex life with you,” he snipped as the cloak flicked him behind the ear, “It’s none of your business. Even if it was, I have no intentions of sex with Madeline,” though he hadn’t really had intentions on going that far going into their first date. They weren’t hormonal teenagers this time. They had more to talk about this time. He was a different person now too. There would be no awkward moment when he would try to fill the conversational void by kissing her. This wasn’t, and couldn’t, be about sex.

Looking down at his watch, he felt his heart pound a little faster. It was difficult not to think about Christine. He forced himself to remember her everyday when he looked at the watch. It was painful to do it, but he felt he deserved it. She was the woman he could have had a life with, but he’d been too self absorbed to see that. Even after she broke up with him, she had continued to be a constant in his life. One he had forever taken for granted until he finally pushed her too far. They had since begun reconciling, but he felt like it would never reach the point where he could make a life with her again. 

Was he allowed to have that sort of a relationship? Though it wasn’t like he followed the letter of law when it came to the rules he’d learned in Kamar-Taj. If they were both willing to work at it, why couldn’t they make a life together? Stephen supposed the next question was whether she would want a life together or not. Just because she was willing to see him for the new man he was and be discreet about knowing what he was into these days didn’t mean she was willing to love him again. Perhaps the best he could look forward to was friendship again. No. Not again. He’d never been her friend before. She had been his, but he’d never appreciated it. He had to work towards being real friends for the first time. Only then could he start thinking about if their lives could be more than that.

Could he be friends with Madeline? Maybe she didn’t know the mystic arts the way he did, but she held a common interest as him. They could be friends and being friends with her meant he could possibly do the same with Christine some day. Tonight would serve several purposes. Getting re-acquainted with Madeline, checking her shop for any true artifacts, and proving to himself that he was capable of making a connection with a woman. The Ancient One had been a woman, but that felt like a different situation entirely from what he was trying to do now.

“Stop being a child,” he called out as he started down the stairs for the door. The cloak was draped over the railing. It would raise up and then fall limp. At his words, it threw itself on the floor and fluttered. Like a child throwing a tantrum, “I’ll take you out tomorrow. I promise,” the way it moved as it righted itself and fluttered off, it almost sounded like it was huffing. Stephen realized his most intimate relationship these days was with a tantrum throwing, sentient magic cloak. He really needed this evening. He needed the human interaction.

Leaving the Sanctum, he made sure his sling ring was in his coat pocket. Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. It was a habit he got himself into.

Her shop wasn’t far from where he’d met her at on the street. She said she was living there, but the direction she had been walking was towards it yesterday. Was it possible that she had just been too nice to say she’d spent the night somewhere else and was walking home in the clothing she’d worn the day before? Not that it was any of his business if that was the case. But she hadn’t been carrying anything, so it wasn’t as if she had been out buying stock. Though he supposed she could have gone somewhere for something large, arranged a delivery, and was walking back to meet the delivery truck. But then why stay to talk with him for as long as she had and not end the conversation sooner? Because she was a nice person. That was why. The Madeline Mahony he remembered would care more about talking to someone than a business transaction.

Again, he reminded himself that it really wasn’t any of his business.

The wide, front shop window was black with a heavy curtain. She had said it wouldn’t be open to the public for another week. It made sense to keep the window covered to keep onlookers from seeing what was being put up inside. The sign hanging over the door made it seem very old fashion compared to the other buildings that had professionally mounted, plastic and metal signs. It was wood and he appreciated the detail in the wood burning that made up the words and small detail designs.

_The Scarlet Dreamcatcher_

Not a bad name, when he thought about it. Both she and her mother were redheads. Scarlet in general was an interesting color. It brought to mind thoughts of passion, heat, and courage. Alternatively, it was often associated with sex and sin. It would appeal to whatever a person wanted it to be for them. Once they entered the shop and saw the flame haired owner, they would brush off whatever connection they had made with the color and relent that it was nothing more than a throw back to her appearance. It was a nice trick.

As for the dreamcatcher part, it brought to mind what sort of things the shop catered to. Mystical in nature. That was fairly simple and wise to use. 

The front of the building had fresh paint on it. He wondered if her father was funding this for her or if she had funds of her own. Would it be rude to ask if her wealthy father was fronting the money for what was likely to be a low, to no, profit business? New Age shops tended to be a dime a dozen and rarely turn a profit these days. Why buy herbs from a shop like this when one could buy twice the quantity for the same price on Amazon?

Reaching for the door handle, he almost walked right in, but he remembered she wasn’t officially open yet. Thinking better, he gave a light knock, hoping she was in a place to hear, “We’re not open!” she was in a place to hear and obviously not in a place to look at a clock to see it was the time they had agreed upon. It wasn’t upsetting in the slightest. He lost track of time often when he was busy doing something. She’d mentioned inventory, so he assumed she was still wrapped up in that.

“It’s Stephen Strange,” he called out.

“Oh! Stephen!” it was hard not to smile as he heard boxes being shuffled about. Maybe he could offer his help in setting up the shop. It would give him more chances to get a good look at the things she had and help in his efforts to be ‘friends’ with someone. 

The door was yanked open and he took the sight of her in. Much like the day before, she once again belonged photographed for some kind of magazine. There had always been a modelesque quality about Maddy Mahony. He’d only seen her mother a handful of times in their time growing up together and he remembered she had been similar in that fashion. Likely part of the allure her father had seen towards her mother in the beginning. A beautiful flower child, no doubt. Maddy had inherited every bit of it.

Her frizzy, red mane had been tamed into mild submission and was just bright, red waves coming down to nearly her waist. Her makeup was nearly non-existent. Just the faintest shimmer on her eyelids. She was proud of her face full of freckles and did nothing to hide them. Her lips were free of any lipstick, allowing all to see that her freckles even dotted them a little. Stephen had been with his fair share of heavily painted starlett wannabes; but there was always something attractive about a woman who didn’t do that to themselves. He found both kinds of women attractive in their own rights, but the closest he came to decent relationships came from women like Christine and Maddy who didn’t adorn themselves that way.

His eyes wandered down her body. To the 90s styler choker around her neck that was attached to her one shoulder dress. To the expanse of exposed, pale, freckled skin of her right shoulder and across her collar bone to where the dress connected with the choker. It fit snug down her torso and around her hips. It was a very body confident dress. The cold shoulder style was sexy, but kept mildly conservative as it cut off at her knees and not the mid-thigh. The front was laid with very thin mesh that shimmered, setting off the star pattern behind it. Even though she was barefoot, there was a little anklet with a star charm hanging off it from her left ankle. It didn’t take away from the model picture that she wasn’t wearing shoes. It actually made it more fitting given the messy state of the shop behind her.

“Sorry. I lost track of time.”

He shook his head, “It’s alright. Should I come back another time?”

“Oh, no. This is fine,” she smiled and step aside so he could walk in.

It was like most shops he’d been in of this nature. Musky smelling from the herbs and oils with a slight whiff of candle wax. A lot of wooden cases and shelves. All lined with books, bottles, and jars. A case under the counter filled with the expensive crystals and pendants. Looking at it from just that viewpoint, he doubted he would find anything of real value here. But the floor was still filled with boxes. Some looked like standard shipping boxes from outlets that carried essential oils and candles, but there were a few with markings in other languages and some he didn’t even recognize. Those were the ones he was interested in. Even more, he was interested in what she would keep behind the curtain door behind the counter. That’s where most owners who knew what they were doing would keep the good supplies and artifacts.

“Looks like you still have quite a bit of work to do. You sure you wouldn’t rather be doing that than spending time with me,” he smiled back at her as he walked over to the counter, trying to peer into a box with strange markings on it.

“No, I have plenty of time. Not all of this is going out front anyway,” which is what he expected. So she did have an idea of what was good product and what was sellable product. She’d line the shelves with so called sex candles and lavender oils and love spells; but for people who knew where to look, they would head to the back and pick up their supplies while ignoring the teenage girls trying to seduce John from the football team with a love spell written by some teenager years ago that swore that it worked.

“It all looks nice,” it would be a nice shop. A niche place that would work for a year or so before she would have to find some way of making the rent without asking her father for it. Eventually, she would either break down and ask her father or she would go out of business. That’s how he imagined it was with her mother. Once the marriage broke down, she couldn’t afford to keep it open on her own anymore. 

The laugh was something he hadn’t expected of her, “What?” he asked curiously as he leaned back against the counter and picked up what appeared to be a spell book. The copyright date said 1984 and he pretended to thumb through it before setting it back down with disinterest.

“Stephen Strange thinks my magic shop looks nice? The same Stephen Strange that told Claire Smith that her wanting a tarot reading was time wasting nonsense, but she might as well do it anyway because she would better luck asking cards for her future than building one for herself, is currently flipping through a spell book. Did you have a stroke?”

Looking down a little and shifting his weight, it hurt to have his old personality thrown back in his face, but he knew he likely deserved it. While he’d never really taken part in any of the more obvious bullying against kids like herself, he hadn’t stopped it and Christine always told him that he had a knack for using a venomous tongue, “Not a stroke, but a massive car accident.”

“Oh…” he looked up to see the embarrassment in her face. She’d meant what she said as a joke and he’d threw it back at her. He hadn’t meant it to embarrass her.

“It’s alright. I survived and that’s what’s important. It taught me a lot. Ruined my life for a while, but I’m in a better place now,” at least he was building towards that. It would forever be a work in progress, he supposed. Happiness was a hard thing to find and keep. It took constant work. Work he was willing to do.

“Well,” she walked over and hopped to sit on the counter next to him, “I’m sorry to hear you were in an accident, but I’m glad to hear you’re healing in a better place,” she said healing, not healed. Even she could see he was still broken in many ways.

The conversation lulled. This is what he was worried about. Ask her about the box with the strange markings. Ask her about what sort of herbs she would be selling. Ask her where her oil supplier was shipping from. Ask her what sort of properties the crystals in the case were supposed to have. Hell, ask her if she really believed in this stuff or if she just knew there was a market for it. He could have done everything he could to figure out if she knew what was real and what was fake about this stuff.

There were a hundred things he could have asked to keep the conversation going. He could have even suggested an earlier dinner and just go now. Instead, he turned to stand in front of her. Tentatively, he reached out, his hands shaking both from nerve damage and his own anxiety, and touched her hips. Madeline didn’t shy away. In fact, she smiled.

This isn’t what he had planned. This wasn’t supposed to be about sex. He couldn’t do that to her a second time. Even if she was as receptive to it as she had been the first time, it wasn’t fair to either of them. They were adults now and needed to behave as such.

Her fingers slid over his shoulders and he looked up to meet her gaze, “Do you want to see the upstairs?”

“What’s up there?” he asked softly.

“My bed.”

Urges he’d been suppressing for quite some time sprang back to life with a vengeance. Tell her no, because he wanted to take her right here and now. That going upstairs just wasted time. That he could please her just as well on this counter and on the floor as he could in any bed. Just push the skirt of her dress up and take what he needed right this moment. 

“...I can’t,” it had been easier to say than he expected. She looked at him with surprise as he rejected her offer entirely. No having her on the counter or the bed.

He flinched as she touched his cheeks with her fingertips, “That’s okay.”

“You’re not upset?”

“Not really. I mean...I’m sure it would have been fun, but then I might never hear from you again,” she smiled teasingly, “Or at least for another twenty or so years.”

“You know, you never tried to talk to me again either. That wasn’t entirely one sided.”

“I didn’t say it was.”

The conversation lulled again and he felt himself trying to grip her hips tighter in his fingers, but his fingers didn’t respond the way he wanted them to. He had turned down her offer to make today just like their first date. He could have gone up to her room and repeated their first time together and been on his way, but he’d said no. Yet he couldn’t make his feet move from their spot and give her the room to get down. His face was still cradled between her hands.

Why couldn’t he go through with it? It had been her suggestion. It wasn’t as if they had to make the same mistake twice and break off contact. He was scared of something else. What if he couldn’t please her? He had once been very proud of his first evening with Madeline Mahony. While he’d never been one to boast about it with his friends, it had been an incredible boost to his ego and confidence. Much like his previous medical work, much of his sexual prowess relied on his hands. Even that first time, he had not been shy about manually stimulating her. Stephen knew he couldn’t do that anymore.

“We should go get dinner,” he finally managed. Slowly, hesitantly, he pulled his hands away at last. Letting her fingers slide off his face as he backed away from her. It felt like so long ago since Christine’s fingers had touched his face like that. He knew it was just a matter of months, but time felt different now.

He watched as she slipped off the counter, “Let me go get my shoes,” she said softly before coming up close to him. His breath caught in his throat as she leaned in and kissed his cheek softly, “It’ll only take a moment,” her words were warm and he remembered to breath as she headed towards the stairs. His body urged him to follow. To tell her that he was worried about not being able to please her, but that he was still willing to try if she would let him. Just to admit that vulnerable fear and be done with it.

Instead, he watched her disappear up the stairs and turned his attention back to the box with the strange markings. Sighing lightly, he leaned down to flip the top of it open and peer at the contents. Nothing too strange. Just clay jars with stoppers in them. He must have been staring at them longer than he thought, because as he reached to pick one up, he heard her coming back down. Quickly, he put the top back on the box and righted himself as he saw her feet appear on the stairs.

“Ready,” she said brightly.

“Wonderful. I made reservations at a Thai place not too far from here. We can walk,” while his life had changed greatly, he still knew how to plan an evening it seemed.

She paused for a moment before smiling coyly, “We went to a Thai place last time.”

Stephen had remembered that, “I thought it might be nostalgic.”

The soft chuckle made him lick his lips and he suddenly realized how dry his mouth was. She walked past him and touched her fingers to his chest for a moment, “You’re still a charmer, Stephen Strange.”


	3. Chapter 3

It felt good being close to someone again. He had spent at least an hour a day at the Scarlet Dreamcatcher everyday for the past week. Helping her set up her products and spending time with her. They often went out for lunch or dinner. Sometimes both. It was nice feeling wanted this way. Madeline never expected anything of him. She just let him talk sometimes. About whatever he wanted.

He even chanced bringing the Cloak of Levitation with him today. He’d kept his promise after their first dinner together and taking the cloak out the next day, but it seemed to be getting jealous of his time away. Before they left the Sanctum, he gave it strict orders that they were going to be meeting with someone not involved in their sort of things and that it was to pretend to be a normal cloak. It pouted a bit, but submitted.

Thus far, it had behaved. At least as well as he could expect for it to. Stephen came up with some long story about it belonging to a magician from centuries ago. He could tell the cloak was not pleased with his story, but it was enjoying Madeline’s attention. He saw it shiver as she ran her fingers over the fabric and while he was hesitant to let her put it on, she did. The cloak didn’t generally let anyone else put it on, but it seemed to like wrapping itself around her and he rolled his eyes a little. Apparently his cloak was a little bit of a pervert. That was nice information to know.

Today was her shop opening and he’d offered to stay and help her for the day. They had both noticed quite a few people stopping and trying to peer through the curtained window. It wasn’t going to be some big grand opening. Madeline was just going to open the door and let people wander in starting at noon. There wouldn’t be a line of people or anything like that. He imagined it would be primarily people asking what kind of store it was and those that stuck around would be the curious sort. She wouldn’t have much in the way of proper clients until those people were sure she wasn’t some kind of fraud.

Stephen was pleasantly surprised that much of her supplies were quality materials. There were a lot of cliche things and useless things, but she had proper things buried within it all. Madeline understood the need to turn a profit, but she also understood how to cater to those that knew what to look for. He supposed her mother had been the real deal with it came down to it too. Not that Madeline had displayed any real magic in the time he’d spent with her. He assumed she was still just the dancing naked in the forest trying to ‘draw down the moon’ type that just happened to find correct information more often than not.

It was getting late in the day and the sales hadn’t been terrible. He spent most of the time being the counter and let her handle the people that filtered in and out all day. It felt nice doing work like this. It wasn’t really something he’d ever done before. He’d never had a job as a teenager and he’d never had to work his way through school. His only real job had been his medical work until the accident. She had to show him how to use the register and the card machine, making him feel a little stupid for a minute or two. But like most things, he got the hang of it quick. He spent much of the time watching her interact with people.

Most kids who were into the things she was had been bullied quite heavily in their school. It had been a private school and even one of the more better ones of those. Kids there were expected to behave a certain way and the few kids like who were less clean cut than the rest like Madeline were pushed out. While comments were made towards Madeline, most seemed to tolerate her. Stephen saw why now. She knew how to talk to people. Even if she was dressed like some kind of flower child from the seventies, her smile was charming and she knew the right things to say. 

It wasn’t until the woman standing in front of him started talking that he realized he was staring at Maddy from across the room. She was helping a group of teenage girls who had wandered in and were trying not to be obvious about looking at the _Be A Teenage Witch_ type books, “You two have a nice little shop here. I remember when Maddy’s mother used to own it,” his eyes broke away from the red headed woman and moved to the elderly woman in front of the register, “I used to get a salve that helped my arthritis from this place. When it closed, I had to start using a prescription and it just never worked the same. I hope Maddy knows what it was. I would love to have it again.”

The doctor in him wanted to tell her that she was wrong. That a salve couldn’t possibly ease her arthritis on it’s own. The new mystic in him told him that if Maddy’s mother had any idea of what she was doing, then there was a small possibility that she had managed to do something like that. While it took intense study to do the sort of things he was doing and learning to do, he had also learned that just about anyone could happen upon magic in some way without realizing it.

Instead of commenting about medicine, he just smiled and bit back the doctor words in his throat, “If she doesn’t, perhaps she can find out if her mother remembers it.”

“Oh, that would be lovely. You two make quite the pair.”

It took a moment for it to process in his head, “Excuse me?” he felt his cheeks warm lightly, “We’re not...we’re not a pair. We’re just old friends. Went to school together.”

“Goodness, don’t I feel like a silly old woman.”

“It’s alright,” it wasn’t as if Stephen hadn’t thought about it a little every now and then. There had been several tense moments since he had rejected her offer to go upstairs. It made it all the more awkward that in her heels, she was eye level with him. They would try to enter a door at the same time and end up bumping each other awkwardly. He’d be forced to look her in the eye as they both apologized and did that awkward shuffling to see who was going to go first till one of them actually did.

Last night had been the worst. She had been putting some books up and the old stool gave out under her. She didn’t fall, but she stumbled and he had already been standing next to her. Maddy could have caught herself, but it was instinct to reach out and catch her. Arms around her waist, her hands on his shoulders, and the stairs leading up to her small living space right behind them; it was difficult not to ask if it was too late to change his answer from their first night.

Christine.

That’s why he hadn’t. 

It was difficult though. Madeline was in his life right now. An active part of it, though she didn’t know the truth of his life. It felt good having her around and there was no telling when Christine and he would reconcile. There was no telling _if_ they would reconcile at this point. What if he did allow some kind of fling between himself and Maddy only for he and Christine to reconnect? Would she be upset that he had not waited to find out if there was a relationship to be had between them again? What if they didn’t end up back together and Maddy moved on? There were a lot of factors and they all made his head hurt.

“Old woman like me sees a handsome man and a beautiful girl together and just assumes a relationship. Guess I’m just a bit old fashion. You’re both just so charming,” charming. A lot of people said that about him till they got to know him better. Madeline was the real charmer, because her sweet actions had no secondary goal that he could find.

“Really, it’s alright,” he reassured her, “If you write down your name and number, I’ll let Madeline know what you’re looking for and she’ll get in touch with you,” he slid the paper and pen across the counter, his hands shaking a little. He could see her looking at the scars and tried not to think about it. Stephen worked hard to ignore the physical changes to his hands. He knew that it wasn’t important. It had taken a long time to figure out that his hands weren’t the key to the mystic arts. He’d tried to blame them for so long and he knew better than to place importance in that any more.

The older lady wrote down her information and after sliding the paper back, she pat the back of his hand affectionately, “You’ve been very sweet,” he flinched a little at the touch, but he didn’t pull away. Pulling back would have been rude. He fought that urge hard. This was something he knew he had to work on more. He needed not to be nervous about people touching his hands.

It was just past midnight when she decided to close the door. He knew she planned on staying open later than this going forward, but it had been a long day and she looked in need of sleep. He watched as she locked the door and leaned back on it with a smile, “That seemed like it went well.”

“Seems so. You won’t really know until you cash out the drawer though.”

“I’ll do that after some sleep. No reason to set myself up for disappointment so soon,” there hadn’t been a lot of sales, but there had been a lot of traffic. He took that as a sign that people were poking around to see if the place was legitimate or not. Despite the fodder she sold, Madeline did have quality supplies. He was sure she would build a small client list soon enough. If the elderly lady he spoke with was any indication, people remembered when he mother owned the place. That bode well for her.

Walking over, he held out the paper, “She used to come here when your mother ran the shop. Said she used to get a salve for her arthritis. I told her that you would…”

Before he could finish his sentence, she reached up and pressed a finger to his lips, “Thank you. Not just for today, but for your help all week. I don’t want to talk about the shop right now though. I’ve put months of my life into it and I just feel like celebrating and passing out for a few hours.”

Stephen smiled and slid the paper onto the window sill. He understood that. It’s what he was doing. He was taking a break from his own studies and work to be here with her. It had been refreshing, “Why don’t I take you out to dinner?” even their first dinner a week ago, they split the bill. He didn’t have the money he once had and he did his best to not the relief show on his face when she didn’t want to go out or over the fact that she always paid for herself. But tonight, he was happy to pay for it.

Slowly, her hands slid over his shoulders and she pulled him a little closer. He knew he should pull away, but he didn't. Instead, he inched closer to her, their toes touching lightly. His shaky fingers touched her hips, feeling the softness of her jade green dress, “I’d prefer something a little more physically exhausting, Stephen. I would really like for you to reconsider coming upstairs with me.”

Her voice was soft and husky as he leaned in and closed his eyes. He was close enough to feel her hair on his cheek and smell her shampoo. She had big, black hoop earrings on. Little purple crystals and moon shaped pendants hung off them and they tinkled softly whenever she moved as the charms clinked together.

Stephen realized she’d been thinking the same things he had. He wanted to tell her he changed her mind and she was hoping he would, “It doesn’t have to change anything, you know. We’re adults, Stephen. We both have our own lives. I don’t want a boyfriend or a husband. I just want someone I can be close with sometimes,” he understood that need. Sometimes, it was all he wanted too. That if Christine didn’t want to be a full time part of his life, he would accept her being part time in his life. They could make it work.

He could make it work with Madeline.

“I want to apologize for how I acted on our first date,” the words that came out of his mouth were not the ones he had been thinking.

“What do you mean?” her fingers were in his hair now. Teasing and toying with the hair on the back of his head. It felt nice to feel her fingers gently scraping along his scalp.

“I seduced you into that motel room and then didn’t even try to talk to you again,” he’d always told himself that she had never tried to talk to him either. That they were both at fault. And maybe they were, but it felt good to apologize for his part in it all.

Her earrings jingled softly as she moved her head. He inhaled sharply as he felt her lips on his neck. Her lipstick was going to leave marks, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t prepared for her to stop and laugh lightly, “What’s funny?” he asked lowly.

“Just that you think you seduced me,” pulling back, he looked at her curiously, “Oh come on, Stephen...I had clean underwear in my purse. I even had travel shampoo and conditioner so we didn’t have to use that crappy motel soap. I went into that date knowing full well that if it went that direction, that I was happy to go through with it. If you hadn’t kissed me, then nothing would have happened, but you didn’t seduce me.”

“Madeline…” he didn’t know how to take this information. Had she really had clean underwear? He did remember showing and using shampoo she gave him. Stephen had spent most of his adult life feeling like he had managed to seduce her into bed, but now he realized that she had wanted it that night as much as he had. There hadn’t been any convincing. It had just happened.

Right now was just happening too. 

Without another word, he pressed her back against the door and tilted his head before crushing their lips together. She groaned softly and buried her fingers into his hair again. The gentle kiss he had shared with Christine some time ago had been nice, but this was passionate. Their kisses were hard and fast as they moved their heads against each other. He gripped her dress as best he could, trying to make the shaking in his hands stop. Their breathing was heavy and he groaned lowly as she bit his lower lip playfully.

Stephen felt her hike one of her legs up against his hip and he pressed further into her body. It felt good. Her body was warm and he fit nicely between her thighs. He’d fit better if her legs were both around his waist, “Up...upstairs…” she moaned as he moved his lips down to her neck. Her thoughts were in the same place his were, but she seemed to think they had time to waste climbing stairs. Stephen didn’t want to let her go long enough to climb stairs.

Without thinking, he tried to tug her down to the floor. He was happy to continue what they were going to do right there in front of the door. It would suit him just as well as it would in a bed at this point. If he had the strength in his hands to hold her against the door, he would have done it right there, “St-stephen...upstairs...please…” she begged softly as she resisted being pulled down.


	4. Chapter 4

As much as he hated it, he relented. She didn’t want to have sex in her shop. It made sense. He never would have agreed to sex anywhere in the hospital. It was logical to keep those two things separated. Still, he was reluctant to let go. Even as she slipped from his arms, he just turned and grabbed her around the waist again.

Madeline giggled as he kept close to her back as they started towards the stairs. He buried his face into her soft hair and kissed at her neck and shoulders as they stumbled along. Stephen was thankful for the zipper he found on the back of her dress. It made things much easier than buttons. He could handle a zipper and he did. He tugged it down as they stumbled up the stairs. He didn’t even take in his surroundings as she pushed the door open and her dress dropped to the floor. 

Suddenly, his fingers were touching soft, bare skin and he felt like a teenager again. His head felt light and he was relaxed. Thoughts of how she might be able to feel the scars on his hands as they roamed her soft waist and hips were gone. He just took in the shape and feel of her body. The way her waist naturally cinched in and her hips widened out from it. It was wonderful.

She turned in his hands and he ran his fingers up her back till he reached her bra. Her lips crushed against his as she lead him through the small efficiency apartment. It was basically one large room with a bathroom to the side. Stephen didn’t bother to look around. He had plenty to focus on right in front of him.

He felt her fingers working at his belt. He’d made the choice to wear his Kamar-Taj clothing today. As nice as it was to wear casual clothing from time to time, he realized that this was who he was now. Plus, it worked well for the theme of a magic shop for the opening of her store. He got a surprising number of compliments on it. Right now, her fingers were making quick work of it. The belt clattered to the floor and she worked the front of the tunic open fast. A shiver ran through his body as she touched his bare chest.

It was disappointing when she turned away from him again, but he latched onto her once more from behind. His fingers trailed over her stomach and his teeth nipped at the soft skin connecting her neck and shoulder. She smelled like a mixture of herbs. It was sharp, but pleasant. It was in her hair and on her skin. It seemed to bring life to his body as she kicked her shoes off. 

They both gasped a little as they fell forward. Stephen was amazed to realize they had made it to the bed. She was pinned beneath him and he had no intentions of letting her up. It helped that she didn’t seem to want up, “Take me, Stephen, take me,” she purred and demanded below him. 

It would have been romantic and passionate to roll her over and kiss her as he slowly pleasured her before continuing on. It’s what he had always done. Left women begging him for more and more before he gave it to them. But the thought of that made his heart pound with anxiety that he wanted to disappear. He couldn’t do that to her. He knew he couldn’t bring her pleasure that way again. His hands wouldn’t allow it. Better to just give her what she wanted and accept the satisfaction it brought on it’s own.

Removing anymore clothing was a waste of time. So was dealing with foreplay and anymore talking. He pushed up to lean on one of his forearms as his free hand snaked between their bodies. It stroked down the curve of her backside and to the tent between his own thighs. He felt her shifting to pull her underwear aside as he pushed his cloth pants down just enough to pull the aching length free.

In this position, he didn’t have to touch her with his hands. He could brace himself on his arms around her and kiss her neck and shoulders. All she had to do was lay under him and let him do the work, which he was more than happy to do. It took away his anxiety and left things at basic needs and urges.

Maddy moaned loudly as he gripped the base as tight as he could and pushed up against her backside. The guttural sound that came from his throat was damn near inhuman. All he could think about was how much better this felt from his unsatisfying nights in Kamar-Taj. The tightness, how warm she felt, the way her back arched up against his chest; it was perfection.

There were no words from either of them as he pushed up on his shaky hands and took her hard and fast. He didn’t tell her how good it felt. She didn’t ask him for more or give direction. It was just the sound of their panting and moaning that filled the room. He pushed her hair aside with his nose so he could kiss around her neck. Something she seemed to like very much as her body tightened more when he did it. Her fingers clenched the blanket under them and she screamed with pleasure into the thick fabric. 

Her body felt like it was on fire and he could swear everything around them was glowing. It really had been much too long. He felt like he was hallucinating. It just felt incredible. He had missed being this way with a woman. It wasn’t Christine, but it still felt good. He had a connection with Madeline. It wasn’t a big connection, but it was more than he had with any other woman in his life that wasn’t Christine. That’s all he needed right now. How things would turn out in the morning when the lustful haze lifted, he wasn’t sure, but right now that didn’t matter.

Her first words broke through the moans of pleasure, “I’m...cumming…” she cooed softly. It was of great pleasure to his confidence that she said that. Knowing that he could still pleasure a woman.

When it finally happened, he couldn’t do anything. She clenched around him and screamed into the blanket once more. All Stephen could do was bury himself as deep as possible and let himself feel it. His eyes shut and he nuzzled into the back of her neck as she came. The feeling rolled through his body in a way he’d never felt before. Was this a side effect of his training? The world felt so different to him and he wasn’t sure why he thought sex wouldn’t be different. It was more intense.

It was too much for him. It had been too long and it felt too good. He was suddenly very aware of the lack of condom and not knowing her birth control status. The doctor in him was berating him harshly for his irrational lust. Unsure of what else to do, he pulled out fast and came against underwear covered backside. His length throbbed and he groaned as he got the relief he’d been hoping to feel for months.

Stephen rolled and fell onto his back on the bed, panting heavy to catch every breath. He turned his head to the side and was shocked by what he saw. Maddy was still laying on her stomach on the bed, but she had pulled her arms under her chin to prop herself up. What was so surprisingly was the state of her body. He had thought the glowing had been some kind of trick of the eye, but she was indeed glowing. Her hair looked like gold and her skin was shimmering. It took quite a bit to keep his composure as she turned to look at him with a smile on her face. Even her eyes seemed to be glowing. It wasn’t a harsh glow. More like a faint shimmer. It was very soft and warm to look at. He realized she didn’t seem to notice it. 

Had he done that to her? Was it possible that sex always looked like this to people who were involved as heavily in the mystic arts as he was? Looking down at himself, he didn’t appear to be glowing. The was glow fading as he looked back at her and he noticed she had stopped shaking too. It appeared to have been brought on by her orgasim. It made him feel dirty in some way to think he might have done something to her to cause it. Was it unthinkable that he may have cast some sort of spell on her without realizing it? There was still so much for him to learn about the mystic arts, but the idea of this made him feel ill. It felt wrong.

“Mmmmm…” she hummed softly, breaking his thoughts away from having possibly used magic on her, “That felt wonderful.”

“Yes it did.”

She groaned as she pushed up on her hands, “Thirsty?”

“A little. Water would be fine.”

He watched as she climbed off the bed. He felt a little embarrassed having cum on her underwear. Seeing the soaking in stain made his face flushed and he watched as she pushed the fabric down her hips and discarded it. The only thing good about it was getting to see her backside. Like the rest of her body, it was pale and freckled. 

Mind clearing up, he looked around a bit. The above shop apartment was small. It was no wonder it was so easy to find the bed. It was really the only piece of furniture in the whole place that wasn’t an appliance. Calling it a studio or efficiency apartment was an over statement. It was less than that. He supposed she didn’t really need a lot of room. Madeline wasn’t like himself. His old home had more rooms than he knew what to do with and most of them were empty. His new home was the same, but at least he had important things in them now.

She headed back towards the bed with a bottle of water. As she walked, she reached up behind her back and unclasped her bra. Tossing the water on the bed next to him, he cared more about watching her remove the last of the fabric on her body. She was a vision. He moved the bottle out of the way as she climbed back up on the bed and settled against his chest. He wished he had thought to take off more of his clothing while she was up. 

Stephen wrapped an arm around her waist and sighed softly as he felt her kissing at the side of his neck, “That really was incredible, Stephen.”

“I want you to know that I didn’t plan on us doing that,” it wasn’t as if he hadn’t thought about it several times, but he had never had any intentions on actually going through with it.

“I know. I didn’t either. But you know, it could have been a little better.”

He felt his heart starting to pound with anxiety, “How...how so?”

“It would have been nice if you touched me a little more,” he felt his chest tightening.

“I...I’m sorry...I just thought I would spare you the clumsiness of my hands…”

Madeline nuzzled his neck and relaxed against him, “It’s okay. It still felt incredible. I was worried you might have peaked in high school, but I’m happy to find out that I was wrong,” she teased and he felt himself relax again. Her body was warm and soft against his own, “Do you want to talk about this now or later?”

He knew what she meant. They couldn’t just ignore each other like they had before. They had to be adults this time. They had to talk about what they had just done and what it meant for them. It was a conversation he always hated. There was a time when he wondered why women always felt the need to ask him what sex meant to their relationship. Many times he had told them that it meant nothing and he made sure to delete their number from his phone as they left the next morning. There would be no doing that with Madeline. Not this time.

But he also wasn’t ready for it, “Later.”

“Sounds good to me,” she yawned lightly before snuggling up against him more. Stephen held her close and forgot about the water bottle. As thirsty as he might have been, he was more exhausted than anything else.


	5. Chapter 5

Their talk was fairly standard. Just going over how neither of them were looking for a relationship, but that it had felt good and that they both wanted to continue on as they were. The term ‘friends with benefits’ was avoided. They just agreed that if the situation came up for them to be intimate again, they wouldn’t ignore it. At the same time, they wouldn’t go out of their way to make it happen. It seemed simple enough, but he knew everyone always thought that when going about situations like this.

Stephen had felt satisfied with their encounter and it helped him greatly. Just their one night was enough to help him, it seemed. His work with the mystic arts seemed to be doing better. He felt relaxed. He had tried not to put too much stock into sex, but he couldn’t deny how it had made him feel. 

The next morning when he left, he found the cloak pouting on the shop counter and he mentally thanked Maddy for making him go upstairs and not having her on the floor. He certainly didn’t need whatever magical consciousness it had judging him on his sexual prowess. It was bad enough that it knew what he had been up to that night. It even tried to give him some sort of a high five, which he rejected. Was it sad that his best friend was a piece of enchanted fabric? Probably, but there was little that could be done about it.

Over the next few weeks, things happened fairly naturally. He didn’t go to the shop as much as he had before, but he still spent several hours there a week. Usually on days when he knew she was getting new supplies. Stephen took great care to help her with inventory for his own purposes. Thus far, she had acquired several interesting items, but none he deemed dangerous enough to take away from her. Though he did memorize the name and face of everyone who purchased these few items to keep an eye on.

He liked working at the shop with her. It was almost as relaxing as the three other times they had become intimate. Stephen was starting to get worried though. After their first night, he had forgotten about the glowing; but when it happened the second and third time, he was concerned. That he was somehow influencing her magically without realizing it. He was finding it hard to believe that she was really enjoying their times together without the use of his hands. It seemed to make more sense to him that he was doing something wrong and using magic to bring about her pleasure.

The worst part was he always seemed to forget about it until it happened again. It was happening more quickly each time they were together too. The first time had been as they finished and she had orgasmed. The second time, they had got past the foreplay stage and he was already inside her when he noticed it. The last time, they had only been kissing and not even removed clothing yet when he noticed it starting. Stephen knew he should have stopped when he noticed it, but logic seemed the furthest thing from his mind while they were together. Once their lips were on each other and he started feeling aroused, he couldn’t imagine stopping at that point. When they finished, they usually fell asleep almost immediately and by morning he forgot about it. It wasn’t like him to forget things, but he did.

Today he had forgotten until he was flipping through one of the various books she had and came across a section about fae. So far today, nothing interesting had happened. He spent his time behind the counter cashing out the few people that came through, answering novelty questions, and just looking through whatever new things she had obtained for the shop. Still nothing of concern. This book was about spirit creatures. It was a modern book. Not like some of the old, leatherbound things she had on the higher shelves or in the back. The illustrations were colorful and detailed.

Turning the page, he was given a two page artwork of a fae gathering. In the center was what he assumed to be the queen. There was always a queen in these things. His eyes focused on her face. It was small and framed with frizzy curls of hair and bright glowing eyes. It triggered his memory of his last evening with Madeline. Along with the glowing happening sooner and sooner, they were making less distance to her bed. The last time they had barely made it up the stairs and ended up falling on top of each other in the threshold. Stephen had his way with her in the floor in front of the door and then they stumbled and fell into bed to sleep straight away after.

He looked up to see her walking the last customer of the night out and locking the door. He knew he had to ask her. Had to find out if this was his doing. How was he supposed to ask such a thing? He’d come across nothing that remotely related to what had been happening between them. He’d seen mentions of sexual magics that involved heavy amounts of emotional commitment and personal investment. That certainly wasn’t happening between them.

He put a smile on his face as she came around the counter and leaned up against it next to him. He decided it wasn’t something he could ask her about. Perhaps he could ask Wong first. See if the man had an ideas. It was not his desire to talk about his sexual relationship, but he couldn’t let this keep on happening if it was something he was doing. Nor could he let it keep happening if for some reason he wasn’t causing it. Stephen wasn’t sure which one was worse.

“Late dinner?” he asked. Maddy shook her head and moved closer to him. He stepped back a little and she slid between his body and the counter. It had been almost a week since their last time together. There was no point in asking, but he did anyway, “What would you like to do?”

It should have been the furthest thing from his mind to do, but she reached up and slid her fingers through his hair and leaned in to press their lips together. Just like each time before, it was difficult to find a reason to stop. Nothing seemed like a valid reason to not let it happen. He pressed his shaky hands to her hips and gripped her skirt as best he could. Her earthy scent filled his nose as he shut his eyes and pressed in closer. A soft moan of disappointment escaped his throat as he felt her pushing at his shoulders, “Upstairs…” she whispered before kissing him again.

Stephen wanted to make it up the stairs again. Stumble his way into her bed and enjoy another satisfying evening. But he couldn’t make it. Not this time. He felt better than ever. Just their few kisses already had him feeling warm and hard. It pressed against the inside of his jeans and the thought of having to stop to get up the stairs was painful. 

Eagerly, his lips made their way to her neck and he finally gave her what she’d asked for each time before, but he’d resisted against doing. He slid his fingers up her skirt and brushed them against the front of her underwear. He still felt incapable of doing this, but she moaned softly and spread her legs a bit. Swallowing hard, feeling his heart beating fast, he slid his fingers down the front of the cotton fabric. His mouth felt dry and he could still feel his fingers shaking and curling on their own, “Oh, Stephen…” her soft voice in his ear was encouraging. 

There were better ways of going about it. He could have taken his time to warm her up a little more, but he knew the longer he waited, the more painful it would be for his hands. He forced his hand to corporate as he pressed a finger inside of her. Madeline moved her hips, helping ease the work he had to do, “Stephen...Stephen...that feels...good,” she purred and he felt his anxiety melting away. He added a second finger and the sound of absolute lust that came from her mouth was like music. The pain didn’t matter. He started working against her wiggling hips. 

He could still pleasure a woman with his hands and somehow that felt more important than that he’d been able to sleep with her in the first place. Magic didn’t require his hands like he once thought it did. There was comfort in knowing that, but knowing that he could still use his hands for something like this meant just as much, “Take me, Stephen, take me,” that was all he needed to hear. Just like the first time. Her body felt warm and wonderful. He couldn’t wait to be with her again.

Eager, he pulled his hand free of her underwear and started working his pants open. They had yet to get far enough to remove their clothing entirely. It was only ever just enough to get the job done. Sometimes they ended up nude by the time they crawled into her bed, but they were never completely in the buff when the act happened. She came the closest when she wore a dress and pulled it off.

She kicked her underwear off her feet and smiled as she hopped onto the case that held the crystals she sold. She sat there a lot and it seemed to have no issue with her weight. As he moved up between her thighs, he couldn’t make himself focus on the fact that she was already shimmering. This was wrong and he knew he had to stop. It just felt wonderful and relaxing and Stephen wanted that in his life right now. He needed something simple in his life and that’s what Madeline was. She wasn’t complicated. She was wonderful, intelligent, bright, and perfectly uncomplicated. She didn’t mix words or make things hard to understand. Everything she did and said was done with complete clarity of her own mind and personality. She knew exactly who she was and what she wanted in life. It’s what he wanted for his own life.

Her head rolled from side to side and she bit her lower lip hard as he thrust up into her. The case under her body creaked a little as he quickly worked up a pace. One hand on her hip and the other hand holding the top of the case next to her head, he used it to help thrust a little harder. It was easy to ignore the shimmering of her skin and the growing humming in his ears. Her legs hooked around his hips as he took her. It was a wonderful feeling. To be desired.

Stephen opened his eyes to see her looking up at him. Her hands were on his shoulders and she was gripping tight. He was suddenly very aware of how bright her eyes were and how loud the humming was. 

Her scream seemed to break through whatever trace he’d been in even more than the humming and her eyes. Trained reflexes went into action as the glass case below her cracked and shattered. He wrapped his arms around her waist and managed to pull her off before she could fall through onto the broken glass and crystal pieces. The speed that it happened and their awkward position caused them to fall back onto the floor. 

He lay on the floor under her and part of him was tempted to continue on their intimacy, but as he saw her glowing eyes, he finally realized he couldn’t. More than that, his eyes drifted to the now broken case. It wasn’t just the top that had shattered. The sides had blown out too. It was amazing their legs hadn’t been cut. The glass was all around their feet. Inside the case, he found the source of the humming sound. It was the crystals. It was very faint, but the stones were vibrating softly. Whatever magic this was, it wasn’t his.

Stephen looked back at her. She had her head craned to look over at the case too. Her whole body was shimmering. Even her hair seemed to be sparkling. The frizzy mane looked practically golden. Did she not see the crystals vibrating or hear their humming? Watching her face, he could tell she did. Whatever was happening, he knew now that she was aware of it and she had no idea that he could see it all too. 

Rumors had always gone around school that she was a witch and that her mother was a witch. That her mother had cast some kind of love spell on her father and that was the only explanation for the mismatched marriage. Did love spells exist? It had never been anything that interested Stephen to look into before now in his studies. What would Madeline Mahony get out of putting a love spell on him of all people? Then again, it wasn’t as if the amount of people who had distaste for him had changed, it was more that the types of people who disliked him had changed. He went from board directors and charities dispising him to people and beings who could destroy worlds hating him.

Feeling her hands sliding up his shoulders, he looked back up at her to see her smiling, “I can’t believe we broke the case,” she laughed softly. She really had no clue that he knew something was going on, “You saved me. My hero,” Maddy leaned down to kiss him, but his lust was gone. Replaced with several other things. Mostly anger. Did she really think she could get away with this?

Rather roughly, he grabbed her shoulders and twisted till she went tumbling off him and into the bookcase behind the counter, “Stephen…” she groaned a little as she started to get up, “What’s wrong with you?”

He was quick to his feet and to fix his pants, “What have you been doing to me?” his eyes widened as he saw her still kneeling on the floor. Faintly, fluttering in and out of sight, he was shocked to see shimmering wings on her back. He’d never seen those before. They disappeared and didn’t come back, causing him to blink and shake his head a little, “What are you?”

“Stephen, you’re acting insane,” she snipped as she climbed to her feet and started straightening out her dress. She was still glowing. It made him feel warm to look at her and for half a second, he considered agreeing that he was acting insane and going back to kiss her. If she was dangerous, why had the cloak never attacked her the few times he’d brought it here? It seemed to enjoy being around her. Had it been affected same as him? He felt his heart pounding again, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

But she did and he knew she did. He caught her eyes flicking over to the broken crystal case. They were still humming and vibrating. It only happened for a moment, but he saw it. She knew very well what was happening. Whatever she was, she knew what she was doing and he needed to be prepared to defend himself. Without a second thought, he flicked his wrists and the Tao Mandalas appeared. Bright and glowing nearly as brightly as her eyes. 

The reaction he got to it was not what he’d been expecting. Most who knew who he was knew what they were and were quick to prepare their own defense. Instead, Maddy screamed loudly. The glow faded from her eyes and the shimmering stopped. The humming was gone almost instantly as well. The crystals had stopped vibrating. Stephen was very much aware that he had made a horrible mistake. Whatever was happening, whether it was Maddy causing it or not, she had no ideas on what he was now. 

The mandalas disappeared, but it was too late. Madeline was already scrambling to her feet to get away. It didn’t slip past his attention that she didn’t run for the front door or even the small room behind the counter with the back entry. Instead, she ran for the stairs. It wasn’t a logical move. The doors to the street and alley were much closer. It made no sense for her to trap herself upstairs. 

He shot out after her. He could have used magic to restrain her, but that seemed a bad idea at the moment. Her feet tripped up the stairs and he managed to grab her around the waist. Maddy didn’t scream. Instead, she kicked and pounded her fists against his hands. Pain shot through them and he did his best not to loosen his grip, “Let go of me, Sorcerer!” that was surprising enough to make him drop her. She thudded down against the stairs and he nearly fell on top of her as she tried to kick her feet out and hit his, “Get off of me!”

“You...You know what I am?” he sat up, trying to give her space. Maddy huffed a bit and shoved herself up against the wall of the staircase.

“I do now!” she snapped, “Get out of here!”

That wasn’t an option, “Madeline, what are you?”

“Get. Out. Now.” her voice hissed lowly. Her once glowing and beautiful eyes were cold and hard now. Her fists clenched tight. She looked ready to throw daggers if she had them. Behind her, pressed and spread out against the wall, was the faint shimmer of wings again. They were gone as quickly as they had appeared once more. It made him feel disoriented to see them like that. 

“Fairy…” he remembered the book he had been looking at, “That’s not possible,” he accepted a lot of new things that he never thought could exist before. But this was as if someone had just told him that there was a unicorn on his front step. He just had a hard time accepting it immediately. Fairies were children stories. Things for young girls to draw and have on their backpacks. There had to be a line drawn somewhere on what was real and what wasn’t. The line for Stephen was fairies and unicorns.

“Get out!”

A loud knock on the door got both their attention, “What’s going on in there?” of course someone would come over. The glass shattering hadn’t been quiet and Madeline had been screamed more than once in terror and been screaming for him to leave for the last two minutes, if not more. From what he had seen, the neighbors here liked Madeline and had liked her mother. They would come check on her.

Maddy scrambled past him and yanked the door open. She plastered a smile on her face and he stood frozen several feet behind her. Terrified of what the scene looked like, “Mr. Clark, I’m sorry, were we too loud?”

Stephen knew what it looked and sounded like. The shop floor was littered with shards of glass. Madeline’s hair was a mess, her dress fussed with, her underwear had been kicked off on the floor, her face was red and flustered, and there was the screaming. Out of all the sexual situations he had been in, this was one he was glad to have never been in before and he could have done without it. 

“I heard screaming and got worried when you didn’t answer the phone,” the man had been in the shop several times. They lived in the apartment next door and his wife was the lady who had asked for the arthritis salve opening day, “Is everything alright?” he was holding a baseball bat. Old man he might have been, but obviously no strange to dealing with tough situations. Stephen didn’t even remember hearing the phone ringing. 

“I’m so sorry,” she smiled and laughed a little, “Everything is fine, Mr. Clark. It’s nothing. Really,” the man didn’t seem convinced, “Really,” she leaned in closer to the elderly man and a flush on her cheeks. Her voice lowered, but not to the point where he couldn’t hear from his spot behind her, “It’s nothing, Mr. Clark. Stephen and I were just...oh this is embarrassing...just trying something _new_. A little roleplay. You know, just to change things up. I think we got a little out of hand.”

Stephen felt his own face heating up and he looked down sheepishly as the older man looked over her shoulder at him, “Well, I guess that’s...alright. Shout if you need anything. Anything,” the man didn’t believe her story, but he accepted it for the time being and walked off slowly.

As soon as the door closed, she turned and pressed her back to it, “Get out now,” she hissed sharply as her tone flipped around again.

“Madeline...please...we have to talk about this.”

“Don’t make me fight you, Stephen. Get out. Now. I will hurt you,” the growl in her voice was one he never expected happy-go-lucky Madeline Mahony to use. Her eyes looked dark and he knew this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. Her body was shaking with anger. Part of him was angry too. She could be as upset as she wanted for him hiding what he was, but hadn’t she done the same thing?

“We’re going to talk about this,” he stated firmly before straightening his clothes out and starting for the back door. Mr. Clark was likely watching the front door like a hawk, “I’ll be back tomorrow. I think we both need some time to think about this before we talk anymore.”

“Like hell you will,” there was a dark tone to her words, “I’ll make you regret it if you come back here. Stay out of my shop, Sorcerer,” telling a magic user to stay out of a magic shop was laughable, but she seemed serious.

“I’ll talk to you in the morning,” now that he knew what she was, he could keep an eye on her the way he did other beings. She was on his radar now and she wouldn’t be able to just slip away. It would take some work, obviously, but they would talk, “I’m borrowing this,” snatched the book about fairies from one of the shelves as he walked. 

Maddy didn’t try to stop him from taking it. He took that as a good sign as he left her shop.


	6. Chapter 6

“What do you know of Fairies and the Fae?” he asked the person who could be considered his closest friend at the moment. Wong was a good man. Their relationship had started a little shaky, but it had evened out fairly well in the last few months. Stephen relented that there were things Wong knew that he was still learning. He found the other man to be a good source of knowledge.

“Fairies? Like little winged people?” it was an on going test on what he could say to make Wong laugh. The man had very specific tastes in humor. It wasn’t entirely dry and physical humor didn’t have much of an affect on him either. A few chuckles were earned by some self-deprecating jokes. Wong had no issue with Stephen putting himself down on occasion in a humorous way. Surreal comedy was useless on the man, as was bodily humor. The occasional dark humor got a few laughs. Right now, he seemed to find the idea of Stephen Strange asking about fairies to be funny and laughed a bit, “Oh, you’re not joking. No. Fairies don’t exist. Fairies, Unicorns, Leprechauns...all made up.”

“Why would they be made up? What purpose does that serve?” there seemed to be an awful lot of writing out there about them interacting with humans now that he was researching it. More so than he found with any other supposed mythological creature. The exception being dragons, but he knew those existed so it made sense for there to be a lot out there regarding them, “Fairies, pixies, sprites, imps, brownies, fey...why so much for something that never existed?”

“Where did you get these books…” Wong picked one up and sighed heavily at the sight of the library barcode on the back of it. The brightly colored books with their cheap plastic-feeling dust covers. All the print was computerized typing and the paper cheap looking. Almost every page had a picture on it. Because adults seemed to need picture books these days. They couldn’t focus on a book that didn’t have pictures. As if some random artists’ interpretation would be accurate when it was obvious the author didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, “Really? Did you find these in the children’s section?”

“...just two of them…” he admitted. He cleared his throat a little, “That’s besides the point though. Why are you so sure that fairies don’t exist? Does it seem so fantastical compared to anything else?”

Wong was silent this time. He knew he was right. There was nothing odd about the existence of fae creatures when it came down to the fact of all the other things that existed, “No one has ever seen one. Our texts are the most accurate in the world and none of them describe anything close to...to…” he picked up one of the books and flipped the page to the Amy Brown style fairy drawing, “...that.”

The drawings were pretty and well done in most of the books, but he had to admit that he found it hard to believe as well. Most of them were depicted with colorful wings, wearing dresses that exposed quite a bit of skin, sitting on mushroom caps, playing with bubbles, and with long smooth hair that flowed in the wind. Other than the one book he had taken from Madeline’s shop, none of them looked like what he had seen in her, “So because no one has written down that they have seen it, then it can’t exist? Even doctors know better than to brush off a condition that shows no physical signs.”

“Someone would have seen or sensed one by now.”

That was a bit more damning. He could tell when something less than human was entering their atmosphere. He’d sensed it when those Asgardians had come to Earth. He sensed it whenever someone attempted to access the Dark Dimension. He had given himself over completely to the mystic arts and that came with certain perks. If the Fae were real, it made sense that he should know about it. He would have known it the moment Maddy stopped him on the sidewalk, “...Then explain where these stories came from.”

“It’s simple. A sorcerer made a mistake and someone who shouldn’t have seen it, saw it. Rather than outting them self they claimed magical little people in the forest. That’s how all those sorts of things start. What sounds more realistic? A little man in a green suit sitting on a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow or a sorcerer misusing their magic or incorrectly using it?”

Wong made sense and he would have likely accepted it if he didn’t have such a clear image of Maddy pressed up against the wall with her wings spread out behind her or the undeniably magical quality of her personality or the way she glowed when happy. The glow had been at its most during intimacy, but everyone commented on it. Anyone who came into the shop talked about what a glow she had and he always brushed it off as a personality trait, but what if she really was glowing the whole time? Then he remembered that she had named him as a sorcerer before he named her.

Whether Maddy knew before he activated his mandalas or not, he wasn’t sure. What he was sure of was that she knew exactly what to call him. Thanks to those Harry Potter movies, most who managed to see them working their magic called them wizards. Madeline had used the proper term, “Is it possible that they could know what we are and have a way of concealing themselves?”

This time it was Wong’s turn to look as if his argument had been defeated, “If they pose no threat to the Earth, they should have no reason to hide themselves from us. To those that know who and what we are, they know so long as they have no ill intentions, we are no threat to them.”

He didn’t like it, but the other man seemed to want end the conversation of fairy talk. He seemed set in his mind that fairies and other magical creatures like them weren’t real. He left Stephen alone with the books he had compiled and his thoughts. None of the information he found seemed all that useful outside of the fact that all of them connected them heavily with nature. A fairy in New York seemed a rather out of place idea. If Maddy was indeed a fairy, why wouldn’t she go somewhere more...country.

One story he found talked of trapping fairies and refusing to release them till they did as the human asked. That seemed to be a common theme in most folklore. Either the human was being tricked or killed by the creature in question or the human was trapping and manipulating the creature. Either way, very few stories about any supernatural being ended with the human and being getting along.

What if there had been sorcerers who had seen fairies in the past? Ones who decided to abuse their powers and try to take advantage of these beings. That wasn’t such a fantastical idea. They weren’t hiding because they secretly posed a threat to the Earth. They were hiding because they viewed humans and sorcerers as the threat. Rather than fight, they chose to hide away quietly. That made a lot of sense to him. It would explain her screams at seeing his mandala shields. She wasn’t shocked, she was scared.

Remembering her threat to fight him, he pulled his cloak on to take with as he picked up the book he had taken from her shop. If she intended on fighting him, he would need to be prepared. It was hard telling what she could or might do, but the cloak would be adept at helping him in anything she could throw at him. It struck him as odd that the sentient fabric hadn’t noticed that she was less than human. Maybe it had and it simply didn’t see her as a threat to him. It had enjoyed being around her from what he could see. There were a few times when he feared the cloak would out itself because she took it off and it didn’t want to be taken off.

He had promised to return the next day and had waited till well after her closing time before showing up. The window curtain was shut and the small window on the door was dark. Stephen wasn’t sure if she would be expecting him or not. As he got closer, he noticed something was out of place. The shop sign was gone. The candles she kept in the window sill were gone too. Something wasn’t out of place. Something was wrong.

Stephen twisted the handle and found it unlocked. The smell of oils and herbs didn’t invade his nose like it usually did. Instead, he was greeted with dust and mildew. His hand reached out to the wall where he knew there was a light switch, but flicking it did nothing. It was as if the power hadn’t been turned on to the shop at all. Lifting a hand in front of his face, a small orb of light appeared and light up the room. It hovered a few feet in front of him as he walked. His boots left footprints in the dust on the floor. There were a few shelves lining the walls and they were nearly bare. All that was left were a few jars from when her mother had closed up the shop a decade ago, “Madeline?” he called out softly as he went to the room behind the counter.

It was bare too. The paint on the walls was chipped and peeling, yet he knew she had put a fresh coat on before opening. All of her books and artifacts were gone. In their place was a decade of dust and dead bugs. It was cold and empty, “Madeline, if you can hear me, please come out. I want to talk.”

He walked cautiously up the stairs to her small apartment. The door was missing at the top and there was no small fridge or stove inside. Her bed was gone too. There were no footsteps other than his in the dust and there was no signs of furniture being moved recently. He didn’t sense anything in here. This shop was dead. No magic had touched this place anytime recently. None that he could feel, which he knew was a lie. His senses were lying to him and he didn’t like it.

“I promise I’m not here to hurt you. I don’t know what’s going on anymore than you do. I really just want to talk,” he continued on as if he was sure she was still here somewhere. If any part of any of the stories he’d read were true, her kind didn’t actually live in the same dimension that mortals did. It was still Earth, but more like hidden pocket dimensions on Earth. The hidden world of the Fae. It seemed ridiculous, but he had seen stranger things.

As he made his way back to the front door, he realized the cloak knew something was wrong too. It tugged a bit as if it were trying to get him to go back in. It wasn’t that it thought she was still there. Instead, it seemed sad. It hung heavier on his shoulders than usual. It had been looking forward to seeing her. It could tell something had happened and it was upset about it. Stephen realized he was going to have a melancholy cloak for a few days and he wasn’t looking forward to it.

“What’re you doing?”

He turned quick at the voice and saw Mr. Clark. The elderly man had his baseball bat again. He had no doubts the man would fight him if it came down to it, “Mr. Clark, uh, it’s good to see you again,” Stephen realized this was his chance to prove he wasn’t losing his mind, “Have you seen Madeline today?” his wife should have been out of her salve soon and would be needing more.

The man’s brow furrowed and he clunched the bat a little tighter, “Who are you? What’re you doing in the old shop? Does Jack know you’re here?” it took him a moment to remember that Jack was Maddy’s father’s name. They had never discussed how she was paying for the renovations or rent on the shop till it got on its feet. He assumed her father had kept the building in hopes of using it again some day and Maddy had been the one to give him a reason to use it again.

“We’ve met several times, Mr. Clark,” he started to take a step towards the man, but he saw something in the man’s eyes. At first he mistook it for cataracts. That wasn’t it though. It sparkled more than it was cloudy, “...I’m sorry, Sir, I think I have mistaken you for someone else…” this man was under some kind of spell. He probably could have broke it, but that would have caused more problems than he was ready to deal with right now.

“You best get out of here before I call the cops.”

“Of course. I think I’m just turned around…” he put his hands up in a show of submission before taking several steps backwards before turning around and walking down the sidewalk.

Madeline was covering her tracks.


	7. Chapter 7

“Tell me again how you know my daughter?”

Stephen found himself sitting across the diner table from Jack Mahony a week after the incident with Maddy. It had been harder than it should have been to track him down. He was living out of state and he had no online presence whatsoever. Even still, he felt like it shouldn’t have taken a week to track the man down. Though upon seeing him, he understood why. His eyes held a similar sparkle to them as Mr. Clark’s had. He wondered if that was Madeline’s doing or her mother. For some reason, he assumed her mother to be the other fae in the family.

He remembered meeting the man once before when he picked Madeline up for their date. He hadn’t done any of the cliche things about warning him for taking his daughter out. The man hadn’t even said anything to either of them at all. He’d had a phone glued to his ear and was pacing in what appeared to be his office. Her mother hadn’t been there to wish them a good night or anything either. At the time, he hadn’t found it all that strange, but he did now, “We went to school together. We dated briefly,” which was an extreme exaggeration of their relationship.

“Oh, right. I remember now. You’re Eugene’s son.”

He smiled and nodded a bit. The man in front of him didn’t look as imposing as he had pacing in his office. The lines on his face were deep and heavy. He looked worn down. Was this what life with a couple of fairies could do to someone? Or perhaps it was just bad aging. At this point, Stephen accepted that there were multiple explanations to just about everything, “Yes. Yes I am.”

“Didn’t you become a doctor? How’re your parents doing?”

“I did, yes. Though I am not practicing at the moment,” no need to bring up his accident, “They are well,” he still needed to call them at some point.

“I can’t imagine you called an old bag of bones like myself just for small talk,” he may have aged, but he was still sharp. His mind hadn’t faltered that much yet.

Stephen had rehearsed this until it sounded logical in his mind for a few days now, “As I said, I haven’t been practicing lately, but I have decided to start again,” there were times when he wished he could. Christine left him files sometimes to consult on and it took a great deal of restraint not to take the drastic measures needed to repair his own body and abandoned his new life, “I was thinking of opening an office for myself and my realtor was showing me a building when I saw one I liked better. She said it wasn’t for sale, but it had been unused for nearly ten years now. When I asked who owned it, she mentioned your name. I didn’t remember the name off hand, but when I did…”

The older man smiled, “You hoped you could convince me to sell it to you because you went to school with my daughter and dated her for a few weeks.”

“Ah, yes, Sir.”

“I appreciate the honesty, but I know which building you’re talking about and I’m sorry, but I can’t sell it. It means quite a bit to me. I was hoping Madeline would want to use it some day, but she hasn’t said anything,” that’s what Stephen expected to hear. So he was under some kind of spell that affected the memory, “I think it might still be too hard for it. It used to be my wife’s shop.”

That he hadn’t expected. It was the wording. He hadn’t said ex-wife and why would a shop that belonged to an ex be important to him anyway. This wasn’t the way a man divorced ten years talked about his ex-wife. Especially since he remembered Madeline telling him that her father was engaged to a new woman. Things weren’t adding up and he wondered just how much she had lied to him or just how much she had altered her father’s memory and history just to cover herself, “I’m sorry to hear that. I am willing to offer quite a bit...but I understand sentimental value. I do hope your wife is doing okay.”

The man’s eyes lowered to the table top and he went silent for a moment, “She passed away ten years ago, I’m afraid.”

Death was difficult for him to deal with. His sister had died when she was only seventeen and Stephen had never fully got over it. It was only recently that he started to deal with those feelings more properly, “I’m terribly sorry to hear that,” he wanted to believe that this is what had really happened and that Madeline wouldn’t be so cruel as to create this memory in her father’s mind. There was a lot he could forgive, but not something that brought such pain to another person.

Jack shook his head a little, “It happened very suddenly. I know I should sell the building, but I keep hoping Madeline will want it for something someday. She’s so much like her mother. I honestly thought she might like to reopen the shop one day, but I would even allow her to just live in it.”

“Losing a loved one can be hard. I lost my sister not long after I graduated. It was devastating for all of us.”

“I remember hearing about that. We moved away not long after that happened. I was sorry to hear about it.”

It was Stephen’s turn to shake his head, “How has Madeline been?”

“Oh, she’s well. I would offer you her phone number if you wanted to talk about old times or something, but she’s always changing it,” that was curious and he wondered if it was even true or not, “She turns up a few times a year. Mostly for birthdays and holidays. She travels a lot. Mostly to California.”

Stephen focused on controlling his hand as he lifted the mug of coffee to sip it slowly, “California? That’s awfully far away.”

The man laughed a little, “She loves it there. Same as her mother. That’s where we met. Topanga Canyon,” he shook his head with a smile.

The name triggered his memory. Maddy had said her mother had moved to Topanga Canyon, “I don’t think I’ve ever been there.”

“Lovely place, really. An oasis for artists, that’s what Wanda used to say. She was born and raised there. It wasn’t easy for her to move here, but she had wanted to do it. Said she needed to break free of her family for a bit. I always got the sense that she hoped to go back there someday. I had actually considered us retiring there,” which had Stephen wondering if the spell on the man in front of him was really Madeline’s doing or not. Maybe her mother got tired of waiting to go home. Still, he found it incredibly difficult to believe that someone could be so cruel. Maybe the divorce story was what Maddy used to make herself feel better despite knowing the truth.

“Perhaps I’ll make it out there some day.”

“Just be careful,” the old man chuckled a little, “You can spend weeks there without realizing it. You wake up in the morning knowing you did something amazing the night before, but you can never quite remember what,” was it possible that Madeline and her mother weren’t the only fairies in Topanga Canyon. If her mother had been one and born there, was it possible there were more?

“I’ll be certain to keep my wits about me. Anyway, it was good to see you again, Mr. Mahony,” he reached across the table to shake the man’s hand, “If you ever change your mind about the building, please let me know.”

Stephen left before he could be asked any questions about how his hand would feel. He did his best to not shake hands these days, but it seemed rude not to. As he made his way back to the Sanctum, he thought over if this was something he really wanted to continue looking into. Madeline wasn’t hurting anyone. She wasn’t a threat. If anything, he was more of a threat to the Earth than her kind was. He still had a hard time believing any of the stories he had read, but there had to be some truth to them. He could believe that they were more connected to nature than any human could be. 

The curiosity in him, the obsessive nature that drove him to becoming a doctor and to advance to quickly in his study of the mystic arts wouldn’t let him drop it though. He knew there was likely no chance he could learn fae magic, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to see it done and study how different it was from his own. There was also the fear in Madeline’s eyes when she realized what he was. He needed her to know that he meant her no harm. 

What if they could help each other? It seemed such a waste not to explore the possibilities of what they could accomplish together.

Stephen ignored the nagging feeling of how selfish he was being. She ran because she didn’t want to see him again. He should respect that boundary, but he couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it had felt to be with her. Not just the sex, though that had been wonderful, but just being around her. They had things in common and taking to her had started to make him feel confident that he and Christine could be friends again. His focus and drive had started to return. Was he going to such lengths to find her again because he needed her continued presence to heal himself? She had mentioned more than once that he was ‘healing’, which meant she knew he was still broken and wounded.

Since Maddy had come back into his life, he had seen her everyday. They had talked everyday. He spent not less than an hour or two in her shop just talking to her. It had felt nice. It didn’t feel romantic, but it had felt easy and familiar. He missed that feeling already. 

He lied to himself and told himself that this was purely academic and a desire to mend whatever had been broken between their kinds. That it had nothing to do with how it made him feel to be around her. Stephen still felt nothing romantic towards her, but there had been something there. It was that warm feeling when she would kiss just under his ear or when he would realize they had been talking for hours without a break. It made him feel desirable again. It was a selfish need, but one that he was sure could serve two purposes.

After all, once he did find her, even if he could fix whatever had been broken so long ago, there was no telling whether she would want to continue on as they had before. But perhaps he could be just friends with her. Stephen was willing to try that. They hadn’t made the same mistake they had the first time in cutting off contact. He was willing to be friends or even possibly just acquaintances. 

There was curiosity too. If he could mend things between them, she might be willing to show him the sort of magic they used. It still confounded him that she had managed to hide every bit of it all this time. Even the slip up with her glowing, he wondered now if that was less about magic and more about biology. There was a chance she had glowed like that the first time they were together all those years ago and he had just not been able to see it. That it was a part of what their kind did. A sign of arousal or pleasure.

Though in the end, Stephen was well aware that his intentions were woefully selfish. Even as he sat alone in the Sanctum, thinking over how best to approach her once he found her, he couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it had felt being with her. It had only been a week and he was missing her in more ways than he knew he should. 

She had made dinner for them one night. It had been a nice surprise considering they had been eating out most nights. It wasn’t anything complicated or spectacular, but it had been nice. They sat on the floor in the middle of the shop eating picnic style. It wasn’t something he was used to and he had enjoyed it greatly. As usual, she had plenty of things to talk about. It fascinated her to no end his new found life and how he had changed. Maddy had been impressed with how he had changed and grown over the years. Though she always commented that she could tell he was still healing. Never that he was healed. It didn’t upset him when she said things like that, because he somewhat liked that someone who still saw that he was growing as a person.

Stephen had initiated their love making that night. Leaning across their plates and kissing her softly. On the floor of the shop, he kissed down her neck and down the long curve of her still dressed chest. He had wanted to stay there on the floor and not waste time, but she had insisted on them going up the stairs. That had been the night that they had barely made it through the door before he had her on the floor at the top of the stairs and just inside the door.

He realized now that the crystals had been humming that night too and he’d chosen to ignore it. As his lips traveled down the line of her neck and hitting the collar of her dress, they had been humming softly in the case. When his hands had started pushing the hem of her dress up, they got louder, and it only faded softly as she told him they needed to go upstairs. What would have happened if they didn’t? Would the case have shattered, showering them in glass? Possibly.

It upset him a bit at how out of hand he had let it get. Stephen wanted to blame her for it. That it had been entirely her magic that had made him lose his mind, but that was wrong. It had only influenced him. There were few times in his life that he had allowed himself to be as carefree as he had with Madeline. Lesson learned, he supposed. 

Sighing, he knew what he had to do. He climbed to his feet and found Wong in one of the library rooms, “I’ll be gone for a few days,” it wasn’t as if they had to tell each other where they were going. They had freedom to come and go as they pleased, but it was just a common decency to let the other know if they would be gone for an extended period of time.

“I’ll keep things in order.”

“Thank you,” he nodded lightly before going to his room to pack. The cloak had perked up at the mention of being gone and followed after him, “Yes, you’re going too,” it might come in handy, he had decided, “But you’re going in a bag.”


	8. Chapter 8

When was the last time he was in California? It had been a number of years. It just had never been the sort of place he preferred. Even the few times he had been there, he hadn’t been to a place like this. Topanga Canyon was much different from the night scene he remembered in Los Angeles. The first thing he noticed was that it was very quiet. Not the eerie, dead silence. Just the silence of nature. Birds and insects, that sort of thing.

The nature here was different from the nature northern New York. It wasn’t lush, bright green trees with heavy grass and bright flowers. It was wide and open. Large, rocky hills with spaced out trees. The trees were wide, rather than just tall. There was very little grass or flowers. Everything was a deep green and shades of brown, with an occasional yellow flower here and there that stuck up tall like a weed. This was rocky, hiking nature.

Hiking bag slung over his shoulder, he moved along the trail the guides at the state park entrance had told him to follow. They said that the commune had been here since before the land was declared a state park and that was why they were allowed to stay. It was private property, but it wasn’t illegal to go up to it and they rarely turned people away.

It was hot and dry out and he was thankful they had reminded him to bring water. Sweat dotted his brow as he looked around a bit. The bag on his shoulder jerked, “Stop it. I told you, you have to stay in there,” he was starting to think it was a mistake to bring the cloak with him, yet it didn’t seem wise not to, “We should be almost there.”

What he was walking into, Stephen didn’t have a clue. There was a chance that this really was just some old hippie commune where all they did was sit around smoking weed, singing, and dancing. On the other hand, there was a chance that this really was home to a large group of fairies and they were going to try to kill him. Having the cloak with him in case of that second option would be useful.

It was nearly night and the sun was starting to set. He was thankful for that and for the sound of water running. They had told him there was a waterfall to pass by just before the commune. That meant he was finally close.

The water sounds got louder and he rounded a corner of the rock wall to see the waterfall. It wasn’t the most impressive waterfall, but it was still nice to look at. The water coming off the top of the rocks looked whitish, but the pond below was dark green. The waterfall wasn’t huge, so it didn’t disturb the water below too much. The rocks were covered in slimy, green moss. 

Getting closer to the water's edge, he knelt down to inspect the rocks. They weren’t just mossy. They were covered in mushrooms. In the past, he hadn’t cared about mushrooms very much. There were just something that showed up in his food on occasion. They weren’t special or noticeable. That was the past though. These days, Stephen knew that mushrooms were actually rather important for a lot of things. Like everything else, he had devoured and retained the information needed about mushrooms. He could identify a number of species on sight and remembered their uses. 

Looking at these ones, he first noticed that they were growing rapidly. As the sun set, they grew a little larger. He suspected if he had got here earlier, there would have been none here at all. This was a sign of magic and he knew to keep his guard up from here on out. Whether the commune was full of fairies or not, there were obviously some here. All the stories he had read before coming made mentions of mushroom rings being linked to fairies.

The next thing he noticed was that many of the species shouldn’t be here. There was a pinkish one with a white stem and specs of amber colored ooze dotting the stem. This was rhodotus. It wasn’t common to the western regions of North America. There was Lepiota, which was more European. And even the oozing red Devil’s Tooth. These were just a few of them, but they were all growing around the waterfall.

In a ring, he realized. The pond was oddly round. Not perfectly, but more so than he usually saw waterfall ponds to be. He walked slowly around the water, watching the mushrooms grow. This wasn’t natural. It was mystical. Looking up the trail, he realized the commune meant nothing. They probably interacted with the fairies here, but that wasn’t where they lived. One of the lores about fairy rings was that stepping into them could be a gateway to the land of the fairies. Portals weren’t unfamiliar to him. He knew they existed in various forms. It didn’t seem outlandish that this be true.

“Time to get wet…” he muttered before taking a deep breath and stepping over the edge of the pond and into the water. It was cold. The sun didn’t reach here during the day with the rock walls nearby. Stephen remembered a time when the idea of walking into a random pond would have never crossed his mind. When he only swam in climate controlled, private pools. Letting his feet slide into the muddy bottom of the pond and feeling the water rush up his pant legs, he shivered. The cloak jerked a bit and he wobbled, “If you make me fall in this water, I am going to leave you here when I go home.”

Walking further into the water, it was much deeper than he expected. It rose half way up his chest and started soaking his pack. His eyes scanned around and he noticed the mushrooms again. They were glowing faintly. Would they have done that if he hadn’t got in the water? Or was it his presence in the water that made them do it? The water didn’t smell right either. Pond water, natural water in general, had a smell to it. This water didn’t.

He could feel it in his bones now. As time went on, he started getting a sense for magical things. Wong said that was normal. The more he interacted with mystical things, the more he could identify it on sight. He still didn’t understand how Madeline had managed to get it past him. He tried telling himself that it was because her magic was different, but he had encountered different types from his own before and not run into this issue. He refused to believe he allowed his senses to be clouded by feelings of affection, familiarity, and sexual urges. There had to be more to it.

It would also be wrong for someone in his position to ignore the existence of a species so many brushed off as truly fairytale. If they had magic, he had to know that it wasn’t of any threat to the rest of the world. Logically, he knew that they must have existed for over a thousand years, possibly longer than human, and if they were a threat it would have happened long before now. Part of this really was to satisfy his idle curiosity. If fairies existed, then maybe Wong was wrong about leprechauns too.

There was something here. Stephen knew there was. He just wasn’t sure how to use it or make it work. He was standing in the middle of the pond now, the water almost touching his chin. The temptation to use his own skills to try to figure this out was there, but he was concerned about what that might do. There was no telling how the two magics would mix. He also remembered Madeline’s scream when she saw his mandalas. She had been terrified. He needed to save his abilities as a last resort for self defense, not as a way to solve the problem.

Falling through the fairy ring. That’s what several of the stories had said. People didn’t just walk into a ring and get greeted by fairies. They fell through the ring. 

Taking a deep breath, he figured he was already wet and might as well go all the way, he dunked his head under the surface of the water. Pulling his feet up so he could sink to the bottom. The cloak was not pleased with the situation, but he ignored it and let himself drift down. The water hadn’t hit his chin, so he hadn’t expected it to take so long to reach the bottom. The water didn’t sting his eyes as he opened them and looked up. The sun had set and he couldn’t see the surface.

A nervous feeling washed over him. It was that same feeling one got as a child when looking at the ocean and wondering what was out in it. A fear of the deep.

It quickly became more than that as he felt his lungs burning for air and a feeling of disorientation. He pushed back towards the surface, but he felt the bottom of the pond instead. He hadn’t felt himself turning over in the water, but he must have. So he turned back and pushed for the surface again, but only got a fistful of mud again. Something was wrong and he realized this was a self defense situation.

The orange glow of his mandals started, but faded as he felt himself slip through something. He saw light above him finally. It only took a moment for him to find his footing and push his head through the surface of the water. He could stand flat on his feet again and the water just barely knocked his chin once more. Stephen stood quietly for a moment. Allowing himself to regain his footing and to stop the spinning in his head. 

Nothing looked different. Just a waterfall, mossy rocks, mushrooms, and a rockwall. What was different was the sounds. There weren’t nature sounds anymore. No more silence of nature with its birds and insects. Stephen could hear fire crackling, could smell food roasting, and hear music playing. 

Slowly, and quietly, he climbed his way out of the pond and wrung out his shirt as best he could before looking up the trail. It was in the direction that the commune should be, but he had a feeling that there was a different type of village up that way. Looking back at the water, he realized that while the basics were the same, things looked different. The waterfall was practically glowing. The rock wall looked like the lines between the layers were shimmering. This was not natural.

Pulling his backpack off, he set it down and opened it. The cloak wasn’t happy. It sprawled out and shook itself like a dog, “Stay here and get dry. You’ll know if I need you,” it always did. There were few times that it obeyed him without question and tonight was one of those nights. Stephen moved cautiously up the trail as the cloak started wringing itself out, keeping to the side as much as possible. The sounds of music got louder and he could hear voices now too. There was chatter and singing. 

He saw the bonfire first. It was large and impossible to miss. The smoke coming off it shimmered softly in the sky as it floated up. Next were the people dancing around it. It was like a movie. A bad movie about pagan people in the forest. The kind he still disliked. Stephen knew that people who did this stuff existed, but he just found it hard to believe in the things they were doing it for. 

Despite that, he knew these weren’t ordinary people.

Fairy gatherings in a number of things he had read described them as dangerous to humans. Not because the humans were in any physical danger, for the most part, but because they were easy to get caught up in. Dancing, singing, sex, drugs, alcohol, and all manner of things. Madeline’s own father said that time felt different here. He had said that you could spend weeks here without realizing it. He wondered how long her father had really spent here. 

Seeing that these people weren’t human was easy. Many of them had wings, like he had seen on Maddy the night they fought. Not that he was in a better situation to look at them more closely, he realized they weren’t really wings. They were long, shimmering lines of light that made wing like shapes off their backs. They were hollow, almost like line art. Stephen doubted they could be used for any kind of flight. Not that these beings didn’t possess some kind of ability to fly, but he didn’t think it was the wings. The wings were pretty and magical. Like Madeline. Like all of them, from what he could see. A genetic beauty. That’s all the wings were. Like having almost purple eyes or that golden red colored hair.

The sight reminded him of the drawing in the book he had taken from her shop. Everything was bright and colorful. There were even oversized mushrooms. He recognized the species. Amanita muscaria. It was easily recognized by it’s bright red coloring and white spots. Some of them were sitting on the oversized caps, but some were actually eating them. Boiling them reduced the toxicity and hallucinogenic properties of the mushroom, but they were eating them raw. In those quantities, they should be nearly dead.

Stephen couldn’t believe it. They were getting high. Perhaps it didn’t have the same exact effect on them. Though if it didn’t, why eat them? Maybe they got all the effects of the hallucinogen and none of the toxicity. That made a lot of sense.

A shiver ran down his spine and he realized he was being watched. 

He caught sight of a girl sitting atop a mushroom not far from where he was standing. She was looking right at him and chomping on a bit of the mushroom cap she had torn off. She didn’t look angry or scared. Just curious. She looked a lot like Madeline. Big, bright, frost colored eyes shining in the fire light. Sharp features with high cheekbones. Even sitting, he could tell she was tall. Her hair was long, straight, and black though. Dotted with little white flowers. They covered her breasts, which he could tell were bare. She was stark naked on top of the mushroom. Only her hair covering herself. Stephen tried not to be surprised by it. She raised a hand up and gave him a small wave. That was encouraging.

He took a few slow steps towards her, “Hello.”

“Hi,” her voice was soft, “I’m Nissa.”

“Hello, Nissa,” he said cautiously as he moved a little closer, “I’m Stephen,” this was as good an opportunity to see what their boundaries were, “I’m not intruding, am I?”

She shook her head, “No. We like guests. Only those who want to find us, can find us,” she was surprisingly clear and well spoken for someone who was eating psychedelic mushrooms like candy.

“That’s good to hear. How do you know that someone who wants to find you isn’t trying to hurt you?”

“The pond drowns those with malicious intent.”

“That’s good to know,” he wondered how many had lost their lives in that water. At least they had a safeguard in place.

“Are you looking for someone?” Nissa asked as she cocked her head to the side.

Stephen wondered how honest he should be about it. He supposed there was no point in lying. Not because he was sure they could tell if he was lying or not, but because he saw no point in it, “Yes. Her name’s Madeline Mahony. Do you know her?”

The black haired fairy was quiet for a moment. He saw the faint shimmer of white lined wings behind her as she turned a little towards the fire. His eyes followed hers for a moment, “I do.”

“...” he waited for her to say more, but nothing came, “Is she over there?”

“No.”

Maybe she wasn’t here at all. He was seeking fairies and found them, but that didn’t mean Madeline was here, “Do you know where I could find her?”

Nissa laughed softly, “Of course. She’s in her hut,” a hut. That was surprising to hear. Then again, he doubted they had apartments and houses around here.

“And where might I find that?”

He was expecting her to point or to give directions, but instead, she hopped off her mushroom cap, “I’ll show you,” her body was long and lean. Like Madeline’s. He tried not to be obvious in his glancing of her form. It seemed rude, “It’s this way,” she started walking and Stephen was reminded of his first night with Madeline in her shop apartment. From behind, if not for the dark hair, Nissa was identical to Madeline. He remembered how it felt feeling her body pressed up against his. Them tumbling onto the bed, her backside up against his hips, and taking her that way. 

“Are you related to Madeline?” they looked so similar. Eye color, facial structure, and body shape weren’t the only things he noticed. They both had freckles, dimples when they smiled, and they both had bent pinky fingers. He didn’t care how different their species were from each other, he had yet to meet a species that didn’t have dominant genetic traits that got passed down from parent to offspring.

Nissa laughed again, “We’re sisters,” that greatly caught him off guard and he paused.

“Sisters?”

“Half sisters,” that made more sense. As clear as Nissa seemed to be functioning, there was something off about her that he hadn’t figured out yet. She didn’t have the same natural charm as Madeline. Maybe it was the mushrooms. Whatever it was, there was something off about Nissa.

They kept away from the large bonfire, taking a small path away from it. It was only a moment before he saw the various housing they used. There were lots of huts, but there were some ladders leading up to small caves in the rock wall. Stephen imagined if there were other colonies of fairies out there, that they preferred living in the natural features. Lots of cave homes and treehouses. The huts looked mostly unused. Likely only for when one was too out of their mind to safely climb the rocks.

Nissa stopped suddenly and turned to him, nearly letting him run into her. Now that he knew what to look for, he didn’t miss the way she seemed to be glowing now. It was very faint, but it was there, “She’s probably sleeping. You shouldn’t disturb her tonight. Why don’t you come stay in my hut instead?” she said it with a smile as she raised her hands to his chest.

Stephen was caught off guard by her movement and words. She was rather forward. It took him a moment to collect himself, “Uh...that’s a very kind offer, but I really must see Madeline.”

She didn’t back off though. She even took a bold step forward and pressed against his chest more, “I disagree.”

It wasn’t like him to be swayed just by a pretty body. Even in the past, while he had bedded women simply because they looked nice, he wasn’t the one swayed by them. It was always the other way around. Yet, looking down at Nissa’s blue eyes, he felt his resistance waiver just a bit. He reached up and touched her hands with the intention on removing them from his body, but they lingered. Stephen knew this wasn’t natural. Even if Madeline hadn’t used any kind of magic on him, he could feel it now. Nissa was trying. Sexual magic seemed like it could be an incredible dangerous thing. It messed with the mind and body. Maybe these fairies weren’t as harmless as he had started thinking they were.

It was like someone had cut a scene from his life. One moment, he was standing there planning on removing her hands from his chest and the next moment, he had his arms around her waist and their lips pressed together. He couldn’t even recall how it had moved to that. This really was dangerous. Nissa’s body felt similar in his arms to Madeline’s. It was soft and warm. 

“Stephen!” the shout managed to bring him out of whatever trance he was falling into, “Nissa!” the black haired fairy pulled away from him fast, leaving him feeling a little dazed. The glow faded from her body and the shimmer of her wings flicked red for a second before disappearing.

Standing several feet from them was Madeline. She looked no different than usual, except that there was anger on her face, “Madel…” Nissa started.

Madeline shot a hand up to silence her, “Get out of here,” she snapped firmly.

The other fairy glanced at him with a smile before taking off running back towards the bonfire, “Madeline…” he tried to start next, but she brought her hand up to him next.

“What’re you doing here?” she demanded, “If anyone finds out what you are…” she shook her head.

“I don’t want to fight you. I’m not here for that. If you haven’t realized it yet, I didn’t know what you were. Madeline, we’ve known each other since we were children,” perhaps they hadn’t been friends, but he had spent the entirety of fourth grade complaining that he couldn’t see over her frizzy red hair to see the chalkboard. She had beat him in sixth grade gym class for hurdle jumping. If nothing else, they had been each other’s first time in bed, “I just want to talk,” she looked him over with a great deal of caution in not only her eyes, but in her body stance. She was very guarded. Arms crossed, back straight, and very tense, “Ten minutes and I’ll leave if you want me to.”

It didn’t relax her, but she did shift a little, “...okay. Over there,” she pointed to one of the huts. It was one of the few that had some kind of light coming from the inside, “You go first,” she didn’t want to turn her back to him.

Stephen nodded lightly before heading towards it.


End file.
